This invention relates generally to the field of livestock handling and more specifically to device for conveyor belt livestock loading.
As the production and processing of livestock, in particular poultry, has become centralized with thousands of animals raised and housed in one location and hundreds of thousands of animals processed in one location, the need arose to efficiently transport large numbers of animals from point of origin to the processing plants or other locations. Therefore, customized vehicles able to contain the maximum number of animals and loading methods to load the maximum number of animals most quickly with the least amount of stress upon and aggravation of said animals have been devised.
At present, the most common transportation means, particularly for poultry, is a flat bed trailer having cages or coops arranged side by side to form horizontal tiers and vertical columns. And the most popular loading means is a device having a conveyor system having a plurality of different moving belts communicating with the ground, where animals may be herded thereonto, and the interior of a coop where the animals may be deposited thus filling said coop.
These devices generally have a main conveyor system which may be individually raised or lowered, and which transfers animals to another loading conveyor belt which extends into the coop being loaded. This loading conveyor belt is progressively withdrawn as it moves animals into the coop as the coop is filled. Then, the coop is closed and the conveyor system is raised or lowered to the next coop and the process repeated.
When each coop in a column has been loaded, the trailer is moved to align a new empty column of coops with the loader. This process is repeated until each column is filled. These present technologies have disadvantages which the extant art defeats or over which it provides improvements as described below.
The head of the loader, in the instant art, below termed the “major assembly, is an improvement in that it has a main conveyor belt which extends and retracts automatically in response to lift or descents, by employing electrical control of extension or retraction device, and a serpentine belt, the effective length of which can be automatically extended or fore-shortened, as necessary. This allows employment of a more compact configuration, greatly increasing overall convenience and ease of operation.
This major assembly includes an operator station, and an autoloader which has a discrete conveyor belt that reaches to, and into, the coops being loaded. The main conveyor belt extends and retracts as necessary to maintain a fixed distance relationship between it and the interiors of the receiving coops. It also tilts automatically to keep itself parallel to the plane of its transport and support frame.
This is accomplished automatically, by providing sensor, receiver, and transmitters in the supporting extension or retraction devices, in example the lift-cylinder mechanism, the extension-cylinder mechanisms, and tilt-cylinder mechanisms. A processor reads the sensor, receiver, and transmitter, receiver, and transmitters, and manages the three, simultaneously to keep them where they need to be.
Because this design provides the described automatically and constantly maintained orientation relative to the coops being loaded, it can use a foreshortened autoloader. Accordingly, the associated moving parts can be, and are, smaller and lighter, thereby exerting less stress on other parts of the device. This is in contrast to other previous technologies that accomplish the loader to coop distance adjustment manually via hydraulics, such as Calabria et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,496 B2. Such technologies require the operator to manipulate a lever to move the end of the loader in and out. But without a serpentine belt, this requires a longer autoloader.
Further, the instant technology employs electric controls instead of previously popular pneumatic or hydraulic controls. This feature significantly reduces the amount of unwieldy and bulky plumbing, increases ease of use, and makes more control options available. In example, no fluid bearing lines need run from fluid source to operator station, there communicating with control valves accessible by an operator, to extension or retraction means, but only need to run from fluid source to extension or retraction device. Other included embodiments eliminate hydraulic systems altogether.
In another example, Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,751 B2 the loader does not extend and retract, but, instead, maintains distance relative to the loading coop by use of a scissor hoist. As a result, it needs a longer autoloader, because the end of its main belt doesn't extend with the head. Therefore, extra length is required to take up where the main belt fails short.
In the instant technology, the preloader can be stored inside a tunnel inherent to the design configuration. It is loaded into this position letting the main conveyor belt or a winch pull it forward until it rests entirely supported by the main conveyor belt. This stands in contrast to other designs, such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,496 B by Calabria, and Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,751 B2, which require the preloader to be propped up in an upright position from the back of the device. In such a propped-up position, it exerts extreme stress on the driveshaft on which it pivots.
Other devices, such as Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,751 B2 and Calabria et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,496 B2, have a preloader that pivots on the driveshaft up front. When the device is transported, the preloader folds in half, and sits upright, in a vertical position. In that position, normal “bouncing” as the device travels, even on a prepared roadway, puts enormous stress on that shaft.
The instant design employs plastic modular belts, which are more humane, than previous technologies and are also self-lubricating, slip-proof, and self-positioning.
In example, Calabria et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,496 B2, uses a rubber conveyor belt. With such a belt, an operator must constantly monitor and adjust it to make sure it is running straight, and keep the rollers straight to prevent the belt from “walking” one way or another. In contrast, the instant art uses sprockets to drive the belts, so, there is no problem with the belt “walking.” It is essentially self-positioning. Rubber belts also slip when wet, or icy. In contrast, sprockets of the instant art prevent the belt from doing slipping.
Other example devices, such as Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,751 B2 use a belt of metal cleated chain. Such a chain is exceedingly heavy. Further, it is inhuman in that it has openings through which the feet of livestock can drop.
This technology also includes debri-clearing augers organic to the system. The lower or intake end of each conveyor-belt rolls around an idler shaft having a gently-auger shaped surface. The auger-shaped surface resembles two worm gears originating end-to-end at the center of the shaft and twisting outward toward the shaft ends. As the upper, load-conveying surface of the belt goes forward, the lower, returning portion of the belt brings trash and debris inside it towards the intake end of the belt. When this trash and debris reaches the intake end of the belt, it flows with the belt up and around the intake side of the idler shaft. Then, flowing over the top of the shaft, it falls back onto the belt on the other side of the shaft and is cycled around it again. However, each time the trash and debris flows over the shaft, the auger-shaped surface moves it a little more towards the ends of the shaft, until the trash and debris falls clear of the device, entirely.
Thus, this new technology reduces the time required to load a trailer and reduces the stress on animals being loaded, thereby advancing the art of loading livestock onto trailers.